A gas turbine engine generally includes a compressor section, a combustion section, a turbine section, and an exhaust section. The compressor section progressively increases the pressure of air entering the gas turbine engine and supplies this compressed air to the combustion section. The compressed air and a fuel (e.g., natural gas) mix within the combustion section and burn in a combustion chamber to generate high pressure and high temperature combustion gases. The combustion gases flow from the combustion section into the turbine section where they expand to produce work. For example, expansion of the combustion gases in the turbine section may rotate a rotor shaft connected, e.g., to a generator to produce electricity. The combustion gases then exit the gas turbine engine via the exhaust section.
The turbine section generally includes a plurality of rotor blades. Each rotor blade includes an airfoil positioned within the flow of combustion gases. In this respect, the rotor blades extract kinetic energy and/or thermal energy from the combustion gases flowing through the turbine section. In certain instances, some or all of the rotor blades include a tip shroud coupled to the radially outer ends of the airfoils. As such, the tip shrouds reduce the amount of combustion gases leaking past the rotor blades.
The rotor blades generally operate in extremely high temperature environments. As such, the rotor blades may define various passages, cavities, and apertures through which cooling air may flow. In particular, the tip shrouds may define various cavities therein through which the cooling air flows. Nevertheless, conventional tip shroud cavities require complex manufacturing processes to form. Furthermore, it may be difficult or impossible to add conventional cavities to the tip shrouds once the rotor blades are in service.